When Brooklyn had cut a once 13-point lead down to just four with three minutes remaining, Julius Randle did what he does better than almost every big man in the league: pass the ball.
The 6-foot-9, 250-pounder got out in transition and bounced the ball to a cutting Timofey Mozgov, who flushed a dunk that helped the Lakers steady their finish of a 125-118 victory — and also gave Randle the second triple-double of his young career.
Head coach Luke Walton has said before that Randle’s playmaking is one of the keys to the Lakers’ hot start to the season, and that skill was for all to see against the Nets, as he pieced together a 17-point, 14-rebound, 10-assist night.
“He was everywhere,” D’Angelo Russell said. “Assists, points, rebounds — whatever it took, he got it done.”
The same could be said for Russell himself, who was lethal from distance in scoring a season-high 32 points. The sophomore sharpshooter hit a blistering 7-of-12 from 3-point range while also picking up eight rebounds, four assists and three steals.
Russell personally set Staples Center ablaze immediately after tip-off, hitting four triples in the first five minutes while also handing Mozgov two assists for a 16-10 lead.
Russell hit another 3-pointer before the opening quarter was finished to reach 17 points, and much of his success had to do with Randle setting him up.
Half of Randle’s 10 assists went to Russell who said that the Nets (4-7) were “forcing our bigs to be playmakers.”
That simply allowed Randle to help Russell jump start the third 30-point game of his career.
“My man D-Lo went crazy in the first quarter,” Randle said. “So he made it easy on me. When our guys get hot like that, it’s just: find them, feed them the ball.”
A photo posted by Ty Nowell (@tynowell) on Nov 15, 2016 at 11:26pm PST
The Lakers (7-5) were the wrong opponent to try that against, as Randle dished out seven assists in the first quarter alone.
Randle was already in triple-double range by the time that Los Angeles had taken a 56-51 halftime lead. The Nets made the first basket of the second half, but the Lakers responded with a 12-4 run to push their edge up to 68-57.
Brooklyn hung around in the second half behind some big performances by Brook Lopez (30 points, 10 rebounds) and Bojan Bogdanovic (29 points) and were able to bring L.A.’s lead to 114-110 with only three minutes left.
But the Lakers managed to keep their visitors at bay after the dunk by Mozgov, who added a season-best 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Randle — whom Nets coach Kenny Atkinson dubbed “a bull in the lane” — fed Mozgov often with three dimes going to the 7-foot-1 center.
While the triple-double was clearly a huge achievement, Walton said that he envisions Randle expanding his capabilities, particularly on defense.
“He is figuring out and starting to believe what he can really do in this league,” Walton said. “But we still need more of an every-type-of-possession mentality.”
HIGHLIGHTS: Julius Randle racks up 17 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists in his first triple-double of the season #LakersWin pic.twitter.com/61aOl5yOBg
Notes Last time the Nets faced the Lakers, Russell scored a career-high 39 points on March 1. … Lopez had three blocks to pass George Johnson for the most in Nets history with 864. … Brooklyn struggled from 3-point range (12-of-41), while the Lakers enjoyed 43 free throw attempts, hitting 34. … Jordan Clarkson had 13 points and a career-high five steals, while Tarik Black pitched in 12 points and nine rebounds. … A crowd of 18,426 was on hand at Staples Center.
Talk about a monster effort…Julius Randle (17 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) has the second triple-double of his career. pic.twitter.com/fOAKoRbWi7
